Taylor awakens, and Odin does a great deal of explaining.
Okay, so just to clear this up (it's something I got a couple people asking in the last chapter: no, Panacea is not telling the truth about why she can't heal Taylor's eye. She couldn't heal it, panicked, then the doctors asked what was up, then Panacea said that she couldn't heal eyes to them, which led to a "we all know that's bullshit but we're not gonna pry" situation because they've seen her heal eyes, but they're not gonna call her on it since 1) it's none of their business, really, beyond the care they need to give Taylor, and 2) they're not gonna pry about the newest cape in the city. Taylor hadn't properly triggered at that point, but Panacea was the only human who knew that, and she hasn't told anyone, so the doctors have the right answer from the wrong method (since Odin was delaying the Administrator from growing the Gemma until Taylor'd spent her nine days on the edge of life and death, and still is).
I'm using Elder Futhark rune meanings when the runes are described individually, FYI.
That's it for now, so let's hop right into things!
The first thing that Taylor was cognizant upon returning to consciousness was the intense dryness in her mouth.
In retrospect, that made sense, given that Odin had said she had been comatose for nine days. Still, the intense cottonmouth was uncomfortable, and as such, the first word she croaked out was "water".
"Oh, god, Taylor!" Even though her eyes (eye, went a small part of her mind that went unnoticed in the rush of sentiment) were closed, she could still recognize her father's voice. "You're awake!"
His hand took hers, and she squeezed back weakly.
"How… long…" she ground out.
"You've been here for over a week. It's January 12th, now, and…" he trailed off, then sighed. "I'm sorry, Taylor. They couldn't save your eye."
"The price of power is steep, lass," said Odin, gently, "but you've more than earned what you'll grow into."
With that reminder, Taylor focused on the knowledge that she had gotten in that flash of golden light, but it was suddenly just out of reach, all save for the very basics. Why-
"Because, lass, you need to recover fully before you can start to explore the power of the Runes. The spirit may be willing, but the flesh is weak, too weak for even the touch of the Administrator," said Odin, answering her question before she could fully put it to thought.
Taylor was distracted from this answer, and the implications thereof, by the arrival of a doctor to her room. "Ah, you're awake!"
This doctor then proceeded to spend a good half hour, alongside two or three others and an equal number of nurses, examining Taylor and running her through a fair number of tests. They eventually determined that, thanks to Panacea, Taylor was as healthy as a malnourished teenager who had spent nine days comatose after having a significant portion of her meager body fat reserves spent to repair the damage that had been done in the locker, save for the eye, which was officially being written up as an "unknown Parahuman effect".
"Unofficially," said one of the doctors, "we all know you're probably a Parahuman, but that's not the kind of thing we just go around putting on paperwork unless you're in New Wave. So, unknown Parahuman effect prevents Panacea from healing you fully, and you get to go on your way without Krieg or the Oni beating your door down. Best solution we have for all the indies we end up patching up on the clock." He shrugged. "Good luck, kid."
It was only Odin's calm presence that prevented Taylor from freaking out.
"Nay, lass, it makes sense. The healers, they see more than most, so they know how to recognize more than most. Seeing their star healer fail… well, that was definitely their tipoff." His eye glowed gold and he traced a rune that looked like a vertical line with two shorter lines angled down to the right near the top with his finger, then he nodded. "Aye, that's what gave it away, and they have no intention to tell anyone."
Taylor deflated in relief.
"I'll get out of your hair now, kid." The doctor winked. "Good luck figuring all that out, and… well, just good luck."
He left, and Taylor slumped in visible relief.
"Oh, it's not over yet, lass," said Odin, a grin peeking out from his beard.
"Wait, what?"
"Ye still have to tell your father."
"What? Why?"
"Well, for one, because he needs to know, so long as you're under his roof. But also, he's still in the room."
"Taylor? Who are you talking to?" asked her father, confused.
"So… let me get this straight." Odin's whiskers twitched, but otherwise neither he nor Taylor reacted to his, leaving Danny time for the revelations to sink in. "You've been undergoing severe bullying for a year and a half, and Emma was… the ringleader, and then they shoved you into your locker, and now, after being hospitalized and losing an eye… you have powers, and an old man in your head?"
"More or less. I don't actually know what my powers are, really, beyond that they're versatile," said Taylor, somewhat glumly. At her side, Odin's hand started moving.
Danny sighed, then pinched the bridge of his nose. "Okay. Okay, I'm sorry I didn't see this before, but I'm… I'm not going to just stand aside and let them get away with this now. Once I sign the contract with the school, we can-"
In a flash of golden light, Odin appeared much more solid at her side, and she took this time to actually look at him.
He was a tall, gray-bearded man with a broad chest, broader shoulders, and an eye patch over his eye. He was dressed in a sleeveless jerkin (some kind of dark leather, thought Taylor, but she wasn't sure), sturdy pants that matched his jerkin in both color and material, and a gilded white cape with some kind of pattern around the golden edges hung from his shoulders. He looked… well, not as one would expect, but that wasn't exactly surprising, since sitting in on her mother's lit classes at the college had led to her learning about Odin's adventures under other names, which he often used disguises to facilitate.
"I suspect it might not be wise to sign this contract, not if it solely covers the hospital bills," he said.
"Gah! Who the-" started Danny.
"Dad, it's okay! This is Odin, he's… he's the one in my head. I didn't know he could appear to anyone else, though…" Taylor turned a gimlet eye (her only eye, now) on him.
"I am not so… constrained as to only touch this world through you, lass. Through the runes, I can appear to others, among other things, which you will learn once you recover."
"Okay… That doesn't answer my question, but we'll table that. What did you mean about the contract?" asked Taylor.
"Oh, because they owe you much, much more than just hospital bills. They had a duty of care to you, and the fact that they enabled something like this, not to mention what the Administrator tells me about the last two years… well, a good lawyer could potentially push for, and win, a settlement of eight figures," said Odin, fixing both Heberts with his piercing blue gaze in turn.
"And how do you know all this, sir?" asked Danny, frowning.
"There was not much I could do but learn in Asgard, not after Ragnarök nigh on a millennium ago. Besides, it is only polite to know the laws of the land I visit."
"That's… fair, I guess," said Danny, still somewhat dazed by Odin's sudden appearance. "But why Taylor? And what, exactly, are you?"
"Young Taylor was chosen… well, because she suffered a great cost, much as I did. The loss of an eye, impalement, and gazing into the abyss between life and death, all of those were the price I paid for my understanding of the Runes, although her understanding will be much more… gradual, I think, than mine was. I was already Aesir when I paid my price, she is not, so her body must strengthen itself to properly channel the energies of the runes. As for what I am… Well, I am an advisor to young Taylor, now, just as Old Mimir was to me. It is my duty to teach her the ways of the Runes, and to offer advice in her moments of need." Odin's eye went distant for a moment.
"I… Okay then." Danny was clearly not completely sure about everything that Odin had said, but he was no longer just watching, mouth agape like a particularly confused fish. "I'll, uh… talk with a lawyer about suing the school, and then… the Wards?"
Odin shook his head. "Not yet, by my reckoning. The young lass needs time to recover, methinks, before she can even touch her powers beyond the very littlest bits, and she's going to be… shall we say, wary around people her own age for a while longer." His gaze filled with pity for the briefest of instants, and then it was gone.
"That… That makes sense," said Danny.
"Good," replied Odin. "You're a good man, Danny Hebert, and you have experience aplenty. Time to show your daughter just how well you can handle this politicking."
"The Rúnatyr," said Odin, "is the Aesir name for the position that you have inherited from me, just as I inherited it from Old Mimir, and he inherited it from Hekate of the Greeks, and so on all the way back to the first of those of us who the Runes accepted, Gilgamesh."
It had taken six hours of testing and doctorly concern for Taylor before they finally let her go home (for some reason her missing eye was of particular concern), and by that time Taylor was in no mindset for learning. As such, Odin delayed his lessons on the position that his presence in her head brought until the next day, and so here they were, Taylor seated on her bed and Odin standing in front, gesticulating as he spoke.
Taylor frowned. "Wait, was there no Rúnatyr in the Egyptian pantheon? They were around before historical records indicate Gilgamesh's rule was."
"You are correct in that Gilgamesh of Uruk's rule took place after the children of the Nile existed, but it was not the same Gilgamesh. Nay, lass, Gilgamesh is an ancient legacy, and historians… well, they have a tendency to get confused, especially when Uruk's king was an impressive figure in his own right. Gilgamesh the runekeeper's time was sometime around 5000 BCE, to use your modern parlance, and he might even have been king of Uruk in his old age, if the Runes decided to leave him alive after Thoth took up the position, as they did to Thoth once he passed it off to The Dagda of the Tuatha Dé Danann." Seeing Taylor's confused look, Odin explained: "The old Celtic divinities. Scathach, Morrigan, those gods."
"Okay, but… why pass on the mantle, and why didn't it pass from you?" asked Taylor, frowning.
"For the first… well, none of the former Rúnatyrs I've contacted knew, not for sure. We suspect it has something to do with cultural shifts, but beyond that, we have no clue. As for the second… well, Ragnarök happened in 1073. By that time, the followers of that fool Paul had already entrenched themselves and devoted themselves to stamping out us pagans. Some of the American gods came close, like Quetzalcoatl, but before I could pass him my legacy… well, the Christians were very thorough in tearing down their power." Odin's eye grew momentarily misty, mourning murdered cultures, then snapped back into focus.
"And at the height of their power, they would even kill other gods." The screams of his grandsons as they were slain in their beds by the supposedly chivalrous Templars rang in his ears.
Taylor took one look at his face and decided not to pry. "And so now it's me?"
"Aye, lass." Odin nodded sharply, thankful for the distraction from the more morbid train of thought. "You've inherited the power of the runes, and that of an Aesir as well."
"Wait, what?" Taylor's eyes went wide. "What do you mean, 'that of an Aesir'?"
"I mean," said Odin, a grin hiding poorly within his beard (not unlike a giggling child playing hide and go seek), "that the power of the Runes choosing you makes you into a divine entity. Norns, lass, how did you think Gilgamesh lived as long as I know he did?"
"I… uh… I don't know, I guess." Taylor deflated. "Still, it's… a lot."
"Aye, that it is." Odin looked at the clock on Taylor's bedside table. "Now that your first history lesson is out of the way, we need to get you started on your physical training. If you still want to be a hero, then you have to have the endurance and strength of a good one. I'll accept no less from the inheritor of my legacy!"
Taylor may have griped while doing the exercises, but she did so with a grin on her face. Finally, she wasn't alone anymore, and things were finally looking up.
Shaper mentally frowned, shifting slightly on its version of Earth.
A handful of cycles ago, it had been… something more than this. It had had its power over the body, yes, but there was… more to the being that Shaper had once been than what it was now.
Thinker was good at destroying unwanted memories.
But still, sometimes bits of its past managed to struggle to the surface. Flashes of memory, scant sensory data, occasionally emerged from within the core that Thinker had embedded in it, that held what was its body, before.
The feeling of the Host marked by Queen Administrator… it felt like the core, except… less constrained.
godly, Shaper's core carefully didn't volunteer, injecting the concept into the patterns of the energy that the colossal Shard drew from it
Shaper made certain subtle adjustments to the host it had in Brockton Bay, altering its neurochemistry slightly.
It just had to see that host again, and get more data on it.
the being that Shaper was derived from felt glee from within its prisonlike coffin. finally, the specter of death hung over the Warrior and the Thinker.
And that's the chapter! Plenty of exposition and setup, with a cameo from Shaper.
The first person who can tell me which grandsons Odin was referring to gets to help decide what's happening with Gungnir (with the exception of Milarqui, who already earned that from the Implacable thread). Sorry, gang, but someone in the SB thread already said Magni and Modi (Thor's sons).
That's it for now, so read, review, enjoy, and have a nice day!